Movies: Los Tortuga/The Exiles (2025) by Belén Funes: Grief, Roots & the Weight of Home
- dailyentertainment95
- Sep 13
- 5 min read
When Leaving Means Remembering
Los Tortuga (The Exiles) is a Spanish-Chilean drama directed and co-written by Belén Funes with Marçal Cebrián. It follows Delia, a Chilean immigrant and nighttime taxi driver in Barcelona, and her daughter Anabel, as they face eviction and are forced to confront their past, especially the death of Julián, the man they both loved. The film spans emotional and physical landscapes—olive groves in Jaén, cramped apartments, city streets—juxtaposing rural tradition and urban precarity. Its title “Los Tortuga” refers to Andalusians who migrated carrying their homes with them like turtles, emblematic of uprootedness. The film premiered at TIFF 2024 in the Centrepiece section, played Málaga in 2025, and was released theatrically in Spain on 23 May 2025.
Why to Recommend Movie: Subtle, Profound, Unshakably Real
Mother-daughter bond under pressure — Delia and Anabel’s closeness is palpable, but the film doesn’t shy away from how grief, financial stress, and unspoken expectations put that relationship under constant strain. Their love, frustration, and misunderstandings feel grounded in lived experience.
Immigration & identity working quietly in the background — Delia’s Chilean roots and Anabel’s ties to the land of her father in Andalusia shape their sense of self. The dual heritage places them between places, eternally in transit, wrestling with where “home” truly lies.
Economic precarity with emotional gravity — The threat of eviction isn’t just a plot device but becomes a mirror to real-world instability: low paid work, lack of housing security, and the fear of losing what little stability one has. The film lets this tension accumulate.
Cinematic realism & naturalism — Long takes, ambient sound (even dimly lit car interiors, olive harvesting, household spaces), and few overt dramatic gimmicks give the film an observational, documentary-adjacent feel. Viewers feel like witnesses.
Strong leadership by cast & crew — Antonia Zegers delivers a Delia who is exhausted but resistive, while newcomer Elvira Lara as Anabel offers a fragile hope. Behind the camera, cinematographer Diego Cabezas and editor Sergio Jiménez build texture and rhythm that reflect emotional states, not just narrative beats.
Where top watch: https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/los-tortuga (Spain)
Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13872628/
Link Review: https://tiff.net/events/the-exiles
What is the Trend Followed: Social Realism & Invisible Margins
The film follows a trend in European (especially Spanish) cinema of bringing to light the lives of immigrants, working-class families, and those living in the margins—balancing personal stories with social critique.
Emphasis on the mundanity of struggle: not sensationalizing but revealing how everyday life carries trauma.
Intersections of immigration, memory, and urban housing crises (evictions, rents, precarity) as thematic preoccupations in recent works.
Generational contrast: young people trying to build a future while elders carry the weight of past migrations and displacements.
Director’sVision Belén Funes’ Quiet Mirror to Loss
Funes uses both silence and spoken tension to illustrate what is unhealed: Delia’s denial of grief contrasts with Anabel’s need to express it, and the spaces of their home (or lack thereof) reflect emotional displacement.
She stages scenes with family rituals (olive harvest, family gatherings), domestic routines, and moments of refusal (arguments, aesthetic clashes) to show how grief and memory persist in physical and cultural forms—not just inside minds but in land, objects, and speech.
Her pacing is patient and deliberate: early in the film, the rhythm is slow, allowing the audience to sense the weight of silence between mother and daughter; later, crisis forces moments of catharsis.
Themes: Rooted Grief, Unspoken Bonds, Homes that We Carry
Grief and denial — Delia tries to avoid confronting Julián’s death; Anabel forces the issue through rituals and memories, showing different ways people cope (or fail to).
Home, displacement, and belonging — The notion of home is pushed and pulled: between Jaén olive groves, ancestral land, and the urban alienation of Barcelona. Migration isn’t just physical; it’s emotional.
Economic survival vs dignity — The film doesn’t glamorize hardship; it shows the choices people make when they must work at night, when housing is insecure, and when dreams demand sacrifice.
Intergenerational identity — Anabel is caught between histories: her mother’s immigrant past, her father’s Andalusian roots, her own modern aspirations; her identity formation becomes central.
Key success factors.dd Empathy, Atmosphere & Unflinching Realism
Performative depth — Zegers and Lara embody their characters so convincingly that moments of silence speak louder than any big speeches. One can feel Delia’s exhaustion; one can feel Anabel’s restless longing.
Visual texture — The juxtaposition of olive orchards, nighttime cityscapes, cramped interiors and taxi rides gives the film texture and contrast: light, shadow, open sky vs closed rooms.
Emotional pacing — The film doesn’t rush to conflict; instead, it builds tension slowly, letting small crises (eviction notice, memory disputes) accumulate until they become unbearable.
Social resonance — Issues of eviction, immigrant labor, generational tension are not abstract in Spain today. The film taps into lived experiences, which gives it relevance and urgency.
Awards & Nominations.dd Accolades on the Festival Trail
Los Tortuga / The Exiles won several prizes at the Málaga Film Festival: the Silver Biznaga for Special Jury Prize, Silver Biznaga for Best Director (Belén Funes), and Silver Biznaga for Best Screenplay (Funes & Cebrián). It was also recognised at Thessaloniki for performances by its lead actresses.
CriticsReception: Strikingly Real, Painfully Honest
Film Threat praised its realism, saying the film is “so real that you can feel the air around the characters,” particularly during olive-harvest, intimate domestic and nighttime pan-city scenes where distress emerges in small gestures.
Cineuropa noted how Funes’ observational style builds the mother-daughter relationship with nuance; the grief doesn’t resolve neatly, but the performances “boast emotional truth.”
Screen Zealots complimented the lead performances and emotional depth, while pointing out that the pacing and subtler emotional arcs may challenge viewers seeking more overt drama.
Overall summary: Critics find The Exiles deeply affecting, strong in tone and performance. While its slow pacing and restrained narrative may not suit everyone, its emotional honesty and social insight are widely admired.
Reviews.add A Quiet But Profound Cry for Home
Strengths: Lead actresses deliver heartbreaking honesty; setting and visual contrasts evoke memory and loss; social issues woven in without heavy-handedness. These qualities combine to make the film linger emotionally.
Weaknesses: Slower pacing, less overt dramatic arcs in the second half, and some scenes that feel more atmospheric than plot-driven, which might test viewer patience.
Overall: Los Tortuga / The Exiles is not an easy ride, but it is a beautifully honest one. It’s a film that demands presence, feeling, and reflection, and rewards those who engage deeply with its silences, landscapes, and relationships.
Movie Trend: Familial Migration Dramas Emerging in Spanish Cinema
This film fits in a burgeoning trend in Spanish cinema where familial dramas explore migration, home displacement, grief, and economic instability, especially among those with mixed cultural roots. It follows works that examine how the ancestral and the adopted home intersect, often through the lens of immigrant mothers and their children.
Social Trend: Housing Precarity, Immigrant Voices & Unspoken Grief
Los Tortuga speaks to widespread social issues: eviction crisis, immigrant labor, cultural dislocation, and intergenerational trauma. In times when housing security and migrant rights are front and center in public discourse, the film offers a humanizing look at people navigating loss and survival quietly in the everyday.
Final Verdict: A Subdued, Poignant Portrait of Loss and Belonging
Los Tortuga / The Exiles is not high on plot spectacle, but it is rich in emotional texture and thematic weight. Belén Funes has crafted a film whose power lies in realism, relationships, and the echoes of migration and memory. For viewers willing to sit with grief, displacement, and the sometimes slow road toward reconciliation, this film offers a moving and necessary experience.
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